a) Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to improvements in shaft seals and particularly to an arrangement that is adapted for use with a pair of relatively rotatable parts to prevent the ingress of dust dirt and other foreign matter and the egress of fluid from within the area confined by the rotatable parts.
b) Description of Related Art
In seal applications particularly in the automotive and heavy-equipment fields where the operating environment contains a high concentration of foreign abrasive matter such as dust dirt and the like, it is advantageous to provide a secondary or dust excluding element to protect the primary sealing element. Seal failure is often due to abrasion by dust and dirt entering the seal and causing the seal to wear away.
During normal operation of a drive axle and yoke arrangement, a seal prevents oil from is escaping the transmission and keeps dirt, water or other foreign material from entering the transmission. Conventional drive axle yokes systems use a slinger arrangement to improve the cleanliness and life of the seal, and these drive axle yokes use a slinger that is pressed onto a diameter of the yoke, and often tack welded in place. Such slingers are used to keep debris away from the oil seal areas. Typically, the slinger is stamped of thin gage material.
There exists a need however for an effective and economical yoke and slinger design having reduced costs and manufacturing time, without sacrificing the systems ability to keep the oil seal areas free of debris.